I thought you might like to know about my Great, Great, Great Grandfather John McLean, from Campbeltown known as the Resurrection Man (body snatcher) who was tried at Inverarary court house in 1832. Before the Anatomy Act of 1832, the only legal supply of corpses for anatomical purposes in the UK were those condemned to death and dissection by the courts. However, the demand was so great for bodies of all ages for dissection that the only way to meet this was to snatch the bodies of the recently buried, (the fresher, the better) and John McLean and his accomplices, Clark and Donnelly, kept the college in Glasgow supplied. This case is mentioned in the Inveraray Jail House Records http://www.inverarayjail.co.uk because this case brought in the Anatomy Law 1832. Whereas Burke and Hare were hanged for their killing of people to order, John McLean only robbed the graves of the bodies, so was given just one years imprisonment.
John McLean was born in 1808 and married Isabella McIntyre and then Catherine Carnegie and is known to have fathered at least 17 children that we know of. (How did he find the time?) His story makes very interesting reading and I have one A4 sheet Prison Record which gives some mention of the case, but a cousin, many times removed has sent me all the details. (8 pages of the complete trial)
John McLean B: 1808-D: 1873 married Isabella McIntyre; one of their sons was Neil McLean B: 1827 who married Elizabeth Morrison who had a daughter Agnes McLean B: 1858
She married Neil McMillan who had a son Charles McLean McMillan who married Agnes Taylor Campbell who had a daughter, Elizabeth McMillan, my mum. That is my link to John McLean.